Evaluation

A2 Portfolio on Prezi

Film Poster

The is the finished film poster that I have created. Below this image is the 1st draft that I made before improving and finishing the cover, as you can see the different between the draft and finished product is noticeable, therefore I greatly valued the drafting process because it has allowed me to create a product of greater quality, containing more of the relevant forms and conventions found in my research. To gather the audiance feedback I needed to improve the draft I printed of a copy and presented it to the sample audiance, the same people who filled in my questionnaire.

Finished

Draft

Magazine Front Cover

The is the finished magazine front cover that I have created. Below this image is the 1st draft that I made before improving and finishing the cover, as you can see the different between the draft and finished product is noticeable, therefore I greatly valued the drafting process because it has allowed me to create a product of greater quality, containing more of the relevant forms and conventions found in my research. To gain the audiance feedback I needed for to improve the draft, I printed a copy off and showed it to a few of the sample audiance, the same people who filled in my questionnaire.

Finished

Draft

Finished Film Trailer

Here is the finished film trailer that we have create, it is titled The Cultivator II and has been created by a mixture of researching, following typically used conventions, our own group creativity and a combined group effort.

Production Log

The production log was a document i created to keep track on any Problems/Constraints that occurred during the construction stage, how we over came these problems and what the final outcome was.

Location List

The following is a list of locations that will be used when filming, and a description of why they were chosen:

• Ben's house - The filming of the 1st victims murder and his friends escape will be filmed here because it is in a pretty central location in terms of were our group members/actors live, we have permission from his parents and the mise en scene is good.

• Michael's House - The filming of the 2nd victims murder will be shot here because, again it is a relatively central location, we have his parents permission and the mise en scene is also very good/appropriate.
  

• Longfield Road - We will be using this road to film the 1st victim, friends escape as well as the sped up car journey because it is right outside Ben's house therefore being the logical place to film and escape from the same house.
  

Props

During the construction of our product we will be using a total of 7 props. These props include:

• Knife - The killer will hold this knife after he runs down the road chasing the first victims friend.

• Chair x2 - The first victim will be tied up to the first chair, and the second victim will be sitting on the second chair in his house when he receives a phone call from the first victims from warning him about the killer.

• Duck Tape - Duck tape will be used to tie the first victim to the chair.

• Car - The first victims friend will use his car to escape from the killer.

• Hammer - The killer will use a hammer as a murder weapon on the 2nd/main victim.

• Newspaper - The main victim will be reading a newspaper when the killer is looking through the window at him.

• Phone - A phone will be used so that the main victim can receive the call from his friend warning him about the killer.

All of the 'dangerous' props used in the construction of the trailer have been risk assessed and their controls will be implemented.

Call Sheet

These documents were created to increase the organisation during the construction stage. The sheets themselves state the locations, actors and props to be used on a specified day of filming.

Risk Assessment Form

This document was created to assess the risk of each activity that will take place during the construction phase. This is an important task to carry out because some of the activity's we are planning to do have the potential to be very dangerous.

Running Time

This document was again created to improve the efficiency of the time spend during the construction time, it helped us particularly in the editing stage know roughly what order to put the clips in.

Script

This document was the script that was created. This script was helpful in the contruction of our trailer as it ment the actors new exactly what to say, therefore saving time.

Storyboards

These are the story boards i created in so that the construction stage would run smoothly and our time would be used efficiently.

Movie Trailer Analysis 2 - Paranormal Activity

The second of the movie trailers i have chosen to analysis is a film called Paranormal Activities (2010). This film is also a recently released film in the horror genre, one that was heavily promoted under claims that the film was based on true recordings.

The Paranormal Activity trailer is unique in the sense that it is shot in a shot of documentary style. It starts of with a shot of people queuing up for an advanced screening of the film with title over laying the footage explaining what is occurring, one of these such titles put the movies name in quotation marks, this projects a subconscious idea that what you are watching isn't a trailer but a case study into something more factual, something that is beyond a regular horror film.

Point of view shots are used throughout the trailer again to give it more of a factual feel, as if what you are is first hand, unedited footage, while at the same time a lot of medium, steady framed shots are used to show the 'paranormal activity' that is such an important part of the plot.

Almost all of the camera shots/angles are included in the trailer to suggest to the audience that what is being witnesses isn't a typical horror film and is something genuinely worth watching, even if you aren't a fan of this genre.

Dark music is included and titles containing rave reviews from critics are flashed onto the screen between 'paranormal' events. The view of this trailer is left with many question in their head about the authenticity of the claims made in the trailer, therefore increasing the likely hood of them going to see the product. Finally if the viewer does decide to he or she wants to see the film the name of the film and release date are included at the end of the trailer, following the typical convention.

Movie Trailer Analysis 1 - Shutter Island

This movie trailer is part of the promotional campaign advertising the film Shutter Island (2010) i have chosen this trailer to analysis because it is a very new product and fits into the horror genre, therefore this media product is very relevant to my project.

The original shutter island trailer starts with the calm end of an equilibrium, its uses establishing shots and begins to give an introduction to the island/plot of the film through the voice over used.

This calm equilibrium is quickly disturbed using time and camera distortion mixed in with a harsh screeching sound and a mixture of fast cuts , slow cuts, fade to black and the muting of none deigetic sound, all of which creates a sense of unease. The beginning of the trailer empowers the island, the ship sailing through the fog symbolises going into the unknown and the confiscation of the officers hand guns symbolises the handing over of power.

Throughout the middle of the trailer a lot of fast shots are used combined with a lot of 'fade to black' transitions this effect slightly confuses the viewer, this effect coupled with the open ended, questioning voice over laying down the plots foundation (without giving to much away) gives a really good sense that something isn't right within this supposed mental institution, a location that stereotypically symbolises crazy, paranormal, frightening imagery.

Near the end of the trailer, once enough superstition about what is realy going on, on 'shutter island' has been portrayed to the viewer, the equilibrium of calm is restored for a moment with a very similar shot to the establishing shot at the beginning, this shot is layered with a voice over that states "you'll never leave this island" leaving the view extremely intrigued as of why this is the case, therefore increasing the likely hood of them watching the film which would make the trailer a success in terms of it achieving its intended purpose.

Finally, at the very end of the trailer the important information of when the film is released is stated on a closing title so that any potential customers of this film that have been, or may be persuaded to buy a movie ticket knows when it is out. This title is the last thing the viewers sees so it will probably be the last thing he or she remembers.

Online Questionnaire Analysis

In this post on my blog I will go through the results of the online questionnaire I created and ask people to fill in. The results of reach question will be visually displayed on a graph and at the end of the analysis I should be able to draw a list on conclusions to implement into the design of my products.

1. Discovering the age of my sample audiance was important becuase films and the trailers advertising them are censored by the bbfc (British Board of Film Classification), therefore knowing the age of my sample audiance would inform me of what kind of audiance opinions the questionnaire was taking in. Each age group complies with the main bbfc film classification of 12, 12a, 15 and 18, and from my results the products I will be creating will most likely be targeted at people over the age of 18.

2. The predominant gender of my sample audiance was important to discover becuase with this information i could detirmin which gender the results of the questionnaire where focused to.

3. Question three allowed me to find out exactly how important movie trailers are in persuading people into wathcing a film. The questioned asked my sample audiance on a scale of 1 - 10 how improtant the trailers were to them, and the results confirmed my beleif that they are of a high level of importance.

4. This question was similar to question 3 in its layout/design, the difference was that it was trying to find out the importance of film posters, again my pre exsisting belifes were confirmed in the results, that the film poster is still has an important role to plat in a films promotional campiagn.

5. Question 5 has the same purpose of the two previouse questions, the results also confirmed my already exsisitng beleifes, that film magazine front covers still play a role in a films promotional campaign.

6. To discover which typically used conventions I should included in the movie trailer i used a check box type question. Each check box contained a different convention and my sample audiance could choose which ones they would expect to see in a movie trailer for the Horror genre. The results of this question state that my sample audiance expectes to see; some kind of equilibrium, fast cuts, slow cuts, lots of different camera angles, deigetic sound, none deigetic sound and a strong narrative.

7. Question 7 was in the same format as question 6 but with the prupose of discovering what conventions found on Horror based film posters my sample audiance thought I should include. The results where as follows; a main image, billing block,date of release, name of the film, coordinated colour scheme, tag lines and critic's opinions should all be included on the film poster i am to create.

8. Quesiton 8 was the final question of my questionnaire, it followed the same format as the two previouse however had the purpose of discovering which typically used conventions my sample audiance would expect to see on a Horror based film magazine front cover. The results showed that; a main image, name of the film date of release, relvent puffs, mastehead, barcode, price and coordinated colour scheme should be used in the film poster i will be creating.

In conclusion, from the results of my questionnaire I can detirmin that all three of the media products i will be creating are still relevent to todays modern audiance and that the following typically used conventions shouldbe included in each of the individual products i will be creating.

Film Trailer

• Equilibrium


• Fast cuts


• Slow cuts


• Lots of different camera angles


• Deigetic sound


• None deigetic sound


• A strong narrative

Film Poster

• A main image


• Billing block


• Date of release


• Name of the film


• Coordinated colour scheme


• Tag lines


• Critic's opinions

Magazine Front Cover

• A main image


• Name of the film


• Date of release


• Relvent puffs


• Mastehead


• Barcode


• Price


• Coordinated colour scheme

Online Questionnaire

Edit: For some reason it seems that some of the 'help' text is cut off when the questionnaire is displayed on my blog. If you would like help with some of the deffinitions that are not visable on this blog then please click here to fill in the quiz

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Film Magazines are another tool used by film companies to promote their films. Total Film is a popular film magazine that usually features a 'cover movie' on its front cover, this featured movie often has a prestige's actor, director or have recently won an award. If the film is featured on the front of a popular film magazine then the readers will more then likely think of this film as important, combine this with a good review and the reader will therefore be more likely to go and see the film. However if the film receives a bad review from a magazine or in fact any medium then the opposite effect could come into play and the reader may be put of seeing the film in question.

This particular front cover features the movie 'Shutter Island'. The focal point of the magazine is fought out between the big, bold, bright red text, in the eeire San serif font stating the name of the film, 'Shutter Island', and the main image of the popular actor Leonardo Di Caprio. The big bright red coloured text acts as a motief, symbolising danger, the way it overlaps over the image of Leonardo Di Caprio interlinks the two features and suggests that Leonardo Di Caprio, within the film is going to be in dangerous situations. This ideology of eeriness and danger portrayed in the colour scheme is again evident in the background image and colour, blue mist and dark sky's are shown, these colours & images again, give the idea that something is wrong. However the lighthouse image in the top right corner projects a small amount of light into the dark mist of night, symbolising that there is also an element of hope within the film.

All of the normal conventions typically found on a film magazine front cover are found on Total Film. It has a big, bold masthead proclaiming which magazine the reader is looking at, it has puffs located down either side of the cover and has tag lines running across the top and the bottom of the page, a barcode is also included. The only other feature of this cover that is relevant to the main film that it is advertising, apart from the central image + name of the film is the two puffs in white coloured text on top of and below the title "Shutter Island". These puff's give a small hint to the reader of what the films basic plot/location, while at the same time providing a small amount of humour and intrigue in the way that the puffs have been worded into puns relevent to the plot line.

The final point i wish to make about the cover is synergy. Synergy is the idea of making all things related to an idea you wish to portray follow the same set of ideals or same style of image, with the objective of improving its effectiveness. In terms of the Shutter Island promotional campaign allot of the Mise En Scene is the same for example the the clothes the main character wares are the same on the film magazine cover and the trailer in some parts. The colour scheme of the poster, cover and trailer are in allot of places the same, in terms of the red motief and the dark eerie colours.

Overall I think that this magazine front cover is effective in both selling the actual magazine and also promoting the "Shutter Island" film to potential customers.

In an attempt to keep my research of promotional campaigns consistent i tried to find a magazine cover featuring the film "Cloverfield", unfortunately i was unable to find such a cover, therefore i chose to analyse a front cover from the popular (2.5m circulation) American 'Mans Mag' "Maxim" featuring the 2006 summer blockbuster "Snakes on a Plane". I chose this film because it is relevant to Cloverfield in terms of its promotional campaign, starting Virally, also the fact that Maxim is targeted at young men it will hopefully provide an interesting contrast to the conventional 'film review' magazines, therefore increasing my knowledge of different mediums within the media.

The main image for this cover is clearly designed to attract the male gaze. It includes an attractive woman and an exotic animal. The exotic animal in the form of a snake has been included to make the cover more exotic and also to promote the film snakes on a plane because snakes are highly featured in the film itself. One of the other main features of this cover is the puff displaying the critically acclaimed act Samuel L Jackson, this further more promotes the film as 'Star Theory' suggests that people are allot more likely to buy a piece of media if a celebrity with a good relative reputation is shown in the advertisement.

Seeing how MAXIM is a 'man's mag' the attractive female is included to gain the target audience's attension, other conventions of this genre of magazine are shown in the colour scheme, puffs, tag lines and masthead. The puffs and tag lines carry innuendo's, the masthead is clear and the colour scheme fits in the exotic 'Latino' feel of bauge pottery type colours and bright red.

Typical conventions found in nearly all magazines are also found on these particular one. For example a bar code can be found on the bottom right corner and puffs are found parallel down each side of the main central image. .

Overall I believe this cover of Maxim magazine does a good job in targeting its audience as well as promote the film Snakes on a Plan. The main advantage of Snakes on the Plane being advertised on this genre of magazine is that it promotes the image that the film is 'sexy' which plays into the idea of 'sex sells'. This tied in with the relevant target audience of young male for each product (film + magazine) and typical conventions being used to their full potential makes, in my opinion this particular cover a success in terms of raising the films profile and selling magazine copy's.

This film magazine front cover is another cover from the company Total Film, the difference with this cover however is its that it is the cover of a special edition. This idea is a very interesting to me because it is an edition that follows typical conventions of other covers while also containing unique special edition conventions. One of the most notisable conventions found on this 10 year special ediction of the Total Film magazine is colour scheme, alot of the puffs are colour bronze which is the steriotypical colour to sybolise 10 years of mariage, which gives of a positive imagary and at the same time gives the cover more 'prestiege'.

The tabs sown the side of the cover are another interesting convention used as they tell the reader/potensial reader, in a clear way what roughly is going to feature in the magazine without them ahving to flik through the product.

Film Poster Analysis

Shutter Island as of this date is a film yet to be released. The film company are currently in the stage of marketing the film before its released with the purpose of persuading people to go and watch it. They have released a film poster and a trailer which are two typical marketing ploys used with in the industry.

The focal point for this poster is the main central image. This image is of the 'star' of the film Leonardo Di Caprio holding a match to his face above an ominous looking prison (for the criminally insane) surrounded by stormy sea's. The film company will have spent millions of dollars on hiring this famous actor to star in their film for the main reason that there is a very large amount of people who will go to see a film based on whether or not their favorite actor is in it, an idea reaffirmed by Richard Dyer's Star Theory.

The picture does another good job of selling the film by in a way giving the potential customers a small idea into what the plot/genre of the movie is; the very bleak looking prison, dark colour scheme and stormy sea's suggest turmoil and unrest, this being emphasised by the tag line of "Something is missing". Leonardo Dicaprio's facial expression also ties in with this tag line and also the fact we can only see his face via the light from a match which again ties into the tag line because the question arises, why does he have to resort to the light from a match in order to see? It is questions like these that this poster does well in making potential customers think, adding intrigue and a sense of mystery to the film which is a popular way of marketing a film especially a film under the horror/thriller type genre.

The Second focal point of this poster is probably the two piece's of text coloured in red. Red has certain stereotypical connotations, such as murder (blood) and danger. This colour goes against the colour scheme of the poster and therefore stands out to a potential customer, the connotations associated with the colour also, again tie in with the tag line of something isn't right, again, adding intrigue and a sense of mystery about the film. The highlighted text is arguable the most important part of the poster, the text of the poster it contains the name of the film and its date of release, important piece's of information for selling a film as it is helpfully for the potential customer to know this if he or she wants to go and see the film (the purpose of making a film poster).

The final feature of the post is the billing block, this is a very standard convention used on film posters, it contains the names of the production company's, star actors, director and other varies important names. The billing block is in small compact font so not take away attension from the main points the poster is trying to make and the films selling points, this feature makes the film poster look more professional, the production company's names and logos often reassure a potential customer that the film will be of a good or high standard.

Although including the billing block, name and date of a film is a very commonly used convention when a film poster is produced, it is not included on every other similar media text. Posters in which these pieces on information are missing are sometimes known as teaser posters used in viral marketing campaigns. Viral marketing within the film industry is a type of marketing that does not comply with typical conventions, its aim is to familiarise people with the concept of a film getting people talking about it without knowing what it actually is. This type of marketing usually takes a long period of time, can be cheaper and if done correctly and can generate a large amount of excited people so interested in what viral advert mean that they will actually go to see the film without even know anything about it and regardless of its ratings and what critics say about it. A recent and very good example of this type of marketing within the film industry is the film Cloverfield. It used viral marketing 6 months prior to its release, this campaign was so successful it generated alot of attention from the media, which helped the campaign reach more people then it could have on its own. Examples of the Cloverfield teaser poster is shown below.




The teaser poster for Clover Field is very primitive in terms of details, the posters pretty much consist of a surreal main picture that slightly confuses the viewer. The only other consistent detail included on the posters is the data of the films release, this combined with the surreal main image will make viewers/potential customers think of questions and increases their intrigue in whatever is going to happen/be released on the data specified. These posters have been re-designed to a final poster the closer it gets to the date, including more details and stereotypical conventions such as billing blocks, names of staring actors and companies associated with the film. This has been done with the intension of converting any potential customer intrigue, into them actually going to see the film.

In conclusion from my research into film posters, i feel that i now have a greater understanding of the stereotypical and non stereotypical conventions used in these piece of media text and will certainly implement some of these features into my product after i have completed my research stage and my planning stage.

Next i will be carrying out research on film magazine front covers, the conventions used and the effects this form of advertisement have on the potential customers and the companies trying to sell the film.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog, during the next few months i will be updating this with regular posts including details of my coursework and the research i have done. My overall aim is to provide a portfolio of my work, for the readers to clearly understand how i have completed my coursework and how it has developed over time. If i have achieved this by the end of the allocated time i will judge this project to be a success.

The brief i have been given consists of creating an original, 2 minute teaser trailer and a poster with the aim of advertising our made up film. Primary and Secondary research aimed at my target demo graph will be used throughout the task to shape what the final product will look like.
My intentions are to successfully create a product that fans from a specific film genre can identify with, it will have to include techniques and features relevant to the genre, while being original in its own way.

The first thing I intend to do is start the research on film trailers and posters by looking at existing products from companies such as 'Shutter Island' and possibly, products from media outlets such of 'YouTube.com'/ This will hopefully give me a better understanding of the conventions and features that a teaser trailer and film poster's typically include.

Finally on the subject of research, i plan on carrying out as much of it as possible, this is because as of now, my knowledge of conventions, camera angles and editing techniques is limited. I believe the best way of doing this would be to analyse existing products and point out the reasons why certain features where included. By doing this i will hope to achieve a better understanding of what appeals to their customers and implement some of these idea's into my/my groups own creation.